Public Release: 12-Mar-2015 ScienceMajor chemistry advances reported in Science by REVOLUTION Medicines founder
REVOLUTION Medicines Inc. today announced the publication of new research by the company's scientific founder Martin D. Burke, M.D., Ph.D., professor of chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The paper in the journal Science demonstrates the automation and robust application of a unified 'building blocks' approach for synthesizing multiple classes of complex natural chemicals that could be valuable backbones for new medicines.
National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Public Release: 11-Mar-2015 Nature CommunicationsDiscovery demystifies origin of life phenomenon
Biomolecules, if large enough (several nanometers) and with an electrical charge, will seek their own type with which to form large assemblies. This 'self-recognition' of left-handed and right-handed molecule pairs is featured in the March 10, 2015, issue of Nature Communications.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 11-Mar-2015 PLOS PathogensUnderstanding plants' immune systems could lead to better tomatoes, roses, rice
Spring is just around the corner and for millions of Americans, that means planting a garden with plenty of fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes. Now, a University of Missouri research team has uncovered new regulations of defense pathways for plants. This discovery could lead to helping those home-grown tomatoes fight off certain bacteria better and has implications for pear trees, roses, soybeans and rice.
National Science Foundation, University of Missouri

Public Release: 11-Mar-2015 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesResearchers develop 'visual Turing test'
Computers are able to recognize objects in in photographs and other images, but how well can they 'understand' the relationships or implied activities between objects? Researchers have devised a 'visual Turing test' to evaluate how well computers perform at that task.
Office of Naval Research, Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 11-Mar-2015 EpidemicsUrging HPV vaccine for boys could protect more people at same price
Whether vaccinating US boys against HPV in addition to girls is worth the cost has been hotly debated. But with HPV-related cancers in men on the rise, and coverage in girls stagnating below the levels needed to ensure that most people are protected, research suggests that devoting a portion of HPV funding to boys -- rather than merely attempting to improve female coverage -- may protect more people for the same price.
National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Duke University

Public Release: 11-Mar-2015 Nature PlantsStudy yields insights into how plant cells grow
A study by Purdue University plant scientists and University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineers advances our understanding of how plants control their shape and development at the cellular level.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 11-Mar-2015
International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating SystemsBuild your own Siri: An open-source digital assistant
An open-source computing system you command with your voice like Apple's Siri is designed to spark a new generation of 'intelligent personal assistants' for wearables and other devices. It could also lead to much-needed advancements in the data center infrastructure to support them.
Google, ARM, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 11-Mar-2015 PLOS ONEIron-oxidizing bacteria found along Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Bacteria that live on iron were found for the first time at three well-known vent sites along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. These bacteria likely play an important role in deep-ocean iron cycling, and are dominant members of communities near and adjacent to sulfur-rich hydrothermal vents prevalent along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This group of iron-oxidizing bacteria, Zetaproteobacteria, appears to be restricted to environments where iron is plentiful, suggesting they are highly evolved to utilize iron for energy.
National Science Foundation, NASA

Public Release: 10-Mar-2015 Service ScienceNew model of cybercrime factors in perishability of stolen data: INFORMS journal study
A new model examining cybercrimes adds an important way of examining the perishable value of stolen data so policy makers can plan against future hacks like the recent Anthem data breach, according to a study in the Articles in Advance section of Service Science, a journal published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.
INFORMS is the leading professional association for professionals in advanced analytics.
Advanced Cyber Security Center, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 10-Mar-2015 Astrophysical JournalMysterious phenomena in a gigantic galaxy-cluster collision
Using new capabilities of the Very Large Array, astronomers have made a fascinating image revealing details of the interactions between a pair of galaxy clusters.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 10-Mar-2015 ChaosPredicting the extent of flash flooding
Devastating floodwaters such as those experienced during Iowa's Flood of 2008 are notoriously difficult to predict. So a team of University of Iowa mathematicians and hydrologists collaborating with the Iowa Flood Center set out to gain a better understanding of flood genesis and the factors impacting it. They were able to do this by zeroing in on the impacts of certain rainfall patterns at the smallest unit of a river basin: the hillslope scale.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 10-Mar-2015 Journal of NeuroscienceBioelectricity plays key role in brain development and repair
Embryonic cells communicate, even across long distances, using bioelectrical signals, and they use this information to know where to form a brain and how big that brain should be. These signals are more than an on/off switch; rather they function like software that enables a computer to carry out complex activities. Manipulating these signals can repair genetic defects and induce development of healthy brain tissue where it would not ordinarily grow.
National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation

Public Release: 9-Mar-2015 Nature CommunicationsPenn researchers show how rivers creep and flow to shape landscapes over time
Most models predict that rivers only transport sediment during conditions of high flow and, moreover, that only particles on the surface of the river bed move due to the force of the flowing water above. But using a custom laboratory apparatus, a new study by University of Pennsylvania researchers shows that, even when a river is calm, sediment on and beneath the river bed slowly creeps forward.
US Army Research Office, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 9-Mar-2015 Current BiologyUCI study of fruit fly 'brain in a jar' reveals mechanics of jet lag
Long the stuff of science fiction, the disembodied 'brain in a jar' is providing science fact for UC Irvine researchers, who by studying the whole brains of fruit flies are discovering the inner mechanisms of jet lag.
National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 9-Mar-2015 Nature NanotechnologyInnovative light therapy reaches deep tumors
Using a mouse model of cancer, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have devised a way to apply light-based therapy to deep tissues never before accessible. Instead of shining an outside light, they delivered light directly to tumor cells, along with a photosensitive source of free radicals that can be activated by the light to destroy cancer. And they accomplished this using materials already approved for use in cancer patients.
National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 9-Mar-2015 Nature GeoscienceOregon researchers detail new insights on arsenic cycling
University of Oregon geologist Qusheng Jin initially labeled his theory 'A Wild Hypothesis.' Now his study of arsenic cycling in a southern Willamette Valley aquifer is splashing with potential significance for arsenic-compromised aquifers around the world.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 9-Mar-2015 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesOne step closer to artificial photosynthesis and 'solar fuels'
A new thin-film coating developed at Caltech solves a major problem in the development of artificial photosynthetic systems that can replicate the natural process of photosynthesis to harness sunlight to generate fuels.
US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Beckman Institute, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Public Release: 9-Mar-2015 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesCenturies-old DNA helps identify origins of slave skeletons found in Caribbean
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of Copenhagen have extracted and sequenced tiny bits of DNA remaining in the teeth of 300-year-old skeletons in the Caribbean. From this data, they were able to determine where in Africa the individuals likely lived before they were captured and enslaved.
Danish National Research Foundation, Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, European Research Council, National Science Foundation, Swiss National Science Foundation, Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship

Public Release: 9-Mar-2015 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesEarly herders' grassy route through Africa
A University of Utah study of nearly 2,000-year-old livestock teeth show that early herders from northern Africa could have traveled past Kenya's Lake Victoria on their way to southern Africa because the area was grassy -- not tsetse fly-infested bushland as previously believed.
National Science Foundation, Geological Society of America, University of Utah Global Change and Sustainability Center

Public Release: 9-Mar-2015 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesMethane in Arctic lake traced to groundwater from seasonal thawing
Global warming may ramp up the flow of methane from groundwater into Arctic lakes, allowing more of the potent greenhouse gas to bubble out into the atmosphere, according to a new study led by researchers at UC Santa Cruz.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 5-Mar-2015 American NaturalistFemale fish that avoid mating with related species also shun some of their own
A new study offers insight into a process that could lead one species to diverge into two, researchers report in The American Naturalist. The study found that female killifish that avoid mating with males of a closely related species also are less likely to mate with males of their own species -- if those males come from an unfamiliar population.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 5-Mar-2015 Evolutionary ApplicationsEvolving to cope with climate change
Researchers have successfully measured the potential of the Atlantic Silverside to adapt to ocean acidification. This is the first such measurement for a vertebrate animal.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 5-Mar-2015 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesNYU chemists develop 'looking glass' for spotting sound molecular structures
NYU chemists have developed a computational approach for determining the viability and suitability of complex molecular structures -- an advancement that could aid in the development of pharmaceuticals as well as a range of other materials.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 5-Mar-2015 ScienceNew detector sniffs out origins of methane
An instrument identifies methane's origins in mines, deep-sea vents, and cows.
National Science Foundation, Shell Oil, Deep Carbon Observatory, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, German Research Foundation

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